THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Alternative for Germany party is projected to finish first in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. But lacking a majority, without the help of other parties it cannot become the first far-right party to govern a state since 1945.
The Alternative for Germany party dominated a crucial state election on Sunday, according to near-final results, but fell short of the absolute majority that would have made it the first far-right party to govern part of the country since the Nazi era.
If those results hold, the AfD, as the party is known by its German initials, could still assume power in the eastern Saxony-Anhalt state in the coming weeks, depending on the outcome of negotiations among rival parties that have vowed not to support an AfD government.
Saxony-Anhalt is a relatively small state, and the heart of the AfD’s power base in eastern Germany. But the result has sent shock waves through the country’s political system, which was designed after World War II to prevent extremist parties from ever returning to power.
The political establishment has treated the AfD as a pariah, but the party tapped into voter frustration on a wide range of economic and social issues to win about 44 percent of the vote in the state, and was set to claim 39 of the 83 seats in the Parliament.
“We’ve made history, and we’re taking our country back,” Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s candidate to lead the state, told a cheering crowd on Sunday evening. “It all starts here in Saxony-Anhalt.” Live Updates » | Jim Tankersley and Christopher F. Schuetze | Reporting from Berlin and Magdeburg, Germany | Sunday, September 6, 2026
